Precontact Domestic Dogs in the Moapa Valley

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology of the Virgin Branch Puebloan Region" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Since the domestication of the dog (Canis familiaris), they have been granted various roles within human society. Because of the often close relationship with people, domestic dogs were often given similar burial customs as people. Precontact dog burials have been recovered throughout many regions in North America. Although some of these were incidental burials, others were deliberately buried. While many of the known examples of dog burials in the American Southwest have been studied, to date, the dog burials of the Moapa Valley in Southern Nevada are largely unknown to the archaeological community. Dogs likely served as hunting companions as well as guardians of crops, and in several instances in the Moapa Valley, at least one dog was buried with a person. This poster explores the archaeological context and ethnographic studies in order to examine the relationship between the Lowland Virgin Puebloan peoples and the domestic dog.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeology of the Virgin Branch Puebloan Region   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39608.0